This was one of my favorite jokes in the anime 😭 it’s still so funny to me after all those years. And I always love to see Nami and Zoro interact, they’re such a fantastic duo. They’ve got this very personal relationship that I wish we could see between other crew members.
At first, I thought this was truly a bullshit excuse that made no sense and was basically a made up reason to make sure Kaya was as alienated as possible. But Oda does a great job in showing how truly sick she is when Usopp does show up and Kaya is panting through their whole conversation.
There is a great parallel between Usopp and Klahadore, in the sense that they are both liars but one uses this « skill » for good and the other for super nefarious purposes. This really sets a trend of a future crew mate being introduced and simultaneously compared to the current antagonist, like we’d previously seen in Nami and Buggy. On top of that, the crew seems really surprised to hear that Usopp’s the son of a pirate! As the story unfurls, it becomes kinda more frequent, but it always remains a crazy declaration, as if pirates aren’t usually known for having children (which makes complete sense). It’s fun to point out that Usopp is the only one directly related to a pirate in the whole crew (that we know of)!
On top of being a really good liar, Klahadore is an excellent actor. Also, this whole sob story really creates a depth to Kuro’s evil. (Not the last time we will see the words Whitewash and Usopp in the same sentence, although I think that’s more of a fandom discussion lmao)
I find it so peculiar and funny how little Luffy interacts with the world around him all throughout the story, and this is one of the first examples: although we don’t know of the extent of Shanks’ reputation and power as of yet, it is kind of crazy that Luffy always gets surprised when someone else knows of him. You’d think he’d be a little less clueless considering that he recognized Usopp’s relation to Yasopp through looks alone. And hey, Usopp’s nose is looking more like it’s supposed to here!